Each Spring we wonder if we’ll survive the challenges of our looming season of caring for hundreds of orphaned wild animals. Each Spring we do what we can to reduce the number of trapped or killed wild mothers, stop needless nest destruction and anything else we think of to keep wild families together. Still, each year we admit more babies each year than the year before, and 2018 was no different. In fact we broke records this year for wild orphans treated.
And we are close to surviving the challenging pace!
[Help us pay our remaining 2018 bills – please, on this #GivingTuesday, donate to HWCC/bax and help us finish the year and prepare for 2019! Donate HERE]
Last week, we released the last of the babies we’ve been caring for at HWCC since the Summer – two late season raccoons (Procyon lotor) and a Black-tailed Deer fawn (Odocoileus hemionus) who also was brought to us unusually late in the season.
As the last babies in care from this very hectic year, we are so glad that they made it home to their wild freedom. Please take a moment and look through the photographs from their releases. They’re the reason for the season.
Simply transporting an older fawn in a crate to the release site is highly stressful! Once sagely arrived, opening the door is a thrill! HWCC/bax intern, Tabytha Sheeley does the honors!
A tentative glance – can it be true? are there really no walls to confine me?!
Just a hint of spots remain for this young deer, who was found near Blocksburg huddled next to his dead mother. Nearly every fawn we admit is traumatized by their mother’s death and requires a couple of days of supportive before they will accept a milk substitute.
One last look back to see if we are still a threat…
And then away he goes…
… quickly putting distance between himself and our release team. So long young deer!
Just as with our fawns, raccoons are admitted in a typically helpless state. Roughly four months of care are needed to until these guys are old enough for independence. Our favorite release site is several miles form the nearest house, with a healthy forest and a tributary of a local river that provides all the resources (like fish!) our former patients need.
These two raccoons aren’t siblings, but they were admitted for care within a few days of each other. Once their initial quarantine period was over (to prevent transmission of disease or parasites) they’ve shared housing their entire time in care. Now they have the chance to spend time together by choice!
After exploring the real river (our housing for raccoons has an artificial river where they learn to fish) this young male finds an interesting leaf, but as you can see, the forest has suddenly captured the attention of his superb raccoon intelligence…
Soon both raccoons leave the release and head up into the woods, where insects, mushrooms, and more await them.
Another successful release of successfully raised wild babies!
As we conclude baby season 2018, we are very grateful for the support we’ve received. We couldn’t have gotten through this Spring, Summer and Fall without you! We still have expenses to cover and we also need to begin making necessary repairs and other maintenance so that we’ll be ready when it starts all over again in only four months!
We’re publishing this story on #givingtuesday. Now, like you our inboxes are filled with pleas for support on this day, and we appreciate the mounting alarms of our era, but truly, without you, we’d no longer be able to keep our doors open, our raccoon river flowing, our deer milk on tap and our 1200 patients that we treat each year would have nowhere to go. Your support keeps the abyss closed. Please, help us help our wild neighbors! Thank you!!!
all photos: Bird Ally X/Laura Corsiglia
